Firebird Zero- OMG

Silence Kid

Silence Kid

New member
I tried one of those ~$400 cheapo USA Firebirds in a store today; figured I might find enough redemption in it to at least strip it of all hardware/rebuild it after what I'd heard online. I was sort of wondering why more people hadn't snatched these up, or spoken about them; guess I know now.

MAN. It really feels ~'60s Vietnamese to the point I'm uncertain that's not what they were going for. The neck has a minimum of anything like 'shaping;' only just enough that it might appear somewhat guitar-ish if you've maybe only seen guitars in pictures. It makes an Affinity neck feel sophisticated. The neck finish has a lawn furniture feel, and the body finish- It's not like it's purposely "rough & ready" like a Faded SG or something- the paint *really* looked and felt as though they quit wet sanding half-way through and said 'done;' patches of shiny, patches of scratchy, patches of swirly, patches of rough. Yeah the bridge wobbles, frets not well crowned, setup is poor and everything else is bottom of the barrel; those things I knew going in, but the obvious finish and construction deficiencies were actually pretty amazing to me.

The result feels like a cheap movie prop of what a "real" Firebird presumably is. And aren't new Firebirds (real ones) pretty cheap now anyway? I'm not a huge Gibson fan, but I get what people like about them; this guitar doesn't have any of that. It's not a 'bare-bones' version of a more expensive Gibson, it's a totally different animal built specifically for this purpose. Look at it on the rack for $400 , then see what that buys you in a Schecter or Epiphone sitting next to it. It eclipses any QA niggles people have on higher-end Gibsons. I get some people *need* a USA guitar and will buy on principle- 'yay affordable US goods;' but I cringe at anyone thinking this is representative of what it's like to 'step up' to a US guitar.

I get budget US guitars have compromises; but things like the earlier Melody Maker "Faded" series P90 guitars or Musicman asphalt/diamondplate SUBs feel like instruments. This is like a Toyota Tercel; the name and a warranty to make your grandmother smile, but... Anyway I've played much worse guitars and heard great music made by POS beaters, so I'm sure someone will rock their world with one. But it was by far the poorest looking/feeling guitar in the store (Guitar Center!)
 
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Re: Firebird Zero- OMG

Was there only that 1 in the store, or did you try many and they were all the same??
 
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Hey, Toyota Tercels are awesome backwood rally beaters! Rear wheel drive and weights nothing. :drive: :smokin:

That Firebird sounds more like Mazda 626 to me :laugh2:

AlexR said:
Was there only that 1 in the store, or did you try many and they were all the same??
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If you pick up a guitar that's that bad, why would you try to defend the manufacturer that's obvously botched their quality control in this case?

It could be most Firebird Zeros are better. It doesn't matter. That guitar shouldn't have ended up in sale in the first place (in that condition).
 
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Well if I was a lefty and desperately wanted a Gibson Firebird on the cheap, well then maybe I would go for it. The controls would be on top and the logo would be upside down. Of course I would have to change the nut and the strap button Place. Does Gibson make left handed Firebirds?

But since I'm a righty, I would not consider it even at that price.

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Re: Firebird Zero- OMG

Jacew said:
If you pick up a guitar that's that bad, why would you try to defend the manufacturer that's obvously botched their quality control in this case?

It could be most Firebird Zeros are better. It doesn't matter. That guitar shouldn't have ended up in sale in the first place (in that condition).
Click to expand...

Of course it matters......honestly this is one of the silliest things I have heard on this forum. A lot of makers let dodgy guitars out.....go to a Fender forum and you'll here the same for example. Gibson is generally worse for those QC issues than they should be, but it still needs to be noted whether or not you have tried enough to be making generalised statements or are simply commenting on one instrument.
 
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AlexR said:
Of course it matters......honestly this is one of the silliest things I have heard on this forum. A lot of makers let dodgy guitars out.....go to a Fender forum and you'll here the same for example. Gibson is generally worse for those QC issues than they should be, but it still needs to be noted whether or not you have tried enough to be making generalised statements or are simply commenting on one instrument.
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I played a Midtown Standard that was an abortion. Frets, nut, crooked tuning machines. But lots of people own them and they love them. So, it was obviously a very poor sample. And I personally wouldn't buy one of their Zero guitars. In general, they remind me of the meme that the tobbaco in the cheapest, generic cigarettes is floor sweepings. But that doesn't mean that they all suffer from the same level of suck. Gibsons QC needs to be better in general. I'm sure they have good (relatively speaking) and bad Zero's as well.
 
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They had only the one; perfectly relevant question. I searched the forum before posting this, and there seems to be only one person who has one here (and that person's reputable opinion is that his is good.) There's so little other mention of the guitar that I hope posting my negative experience will spark the flow of discussion.
 
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Mine was fine, they are funky but that's the vibe of it. They are a 60's Melody Maker type of thing not a high end guitar.
 
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Ha! I love my Music Man SUB with the textured finish. They were not cheap feeling instruments for sure. They stopped making them because they cost too much to produce. I don't know why someone would want a terrible feeling Gibson vs a wonderful Epiphone, but people are funny.
 
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AlexR said:
Of course it matters......honestly this is one of the silliest things I have heard on this forum. A lot of makers let dodgy guitars out.....go to a Fender forum and you'll here the same for example. Gibson is generally worse for those QC issues than they should be, but it still needs to be noted whether or not you have tried enough to be making generalised statements or are simply commenting on one instrument.
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Well, I thought it obvious from original post this was a review about particular guitar. It starts with "tried one of those", after all.

So I misunderstood your comment as a rhetoric question.
 
Re: Firebird Zero- OMG

I would expect those to suck, and be pleasantly surprised if they didn't.

That said, it hasn't always been that way. I got an '03 Les Paul Melody Maker when it was new. It was a $380 guitar that was thrown in for free with my Les Paul Standard (back when a Standard was $1,980.00). The guitar had a Les Paul, Jr. setup, but with a thinner MM body, the classic MM headstock (Gibson shape, but without the headstock ears), and a stop tailpiece instead of a wraparound. Basically a budget version of something that was already a budget version (the LP Jr.).

Since then, I've put way more play on the MM than on the Standard...and other than materials, a few appointments, and the finish, it was *built* just as well as the Standard (though to be fair, the Standard was not really a well built instrument). The only thing it needed beyond what the Standard needed was a set of replacement tuners…about 10 years later, when one of the originals broke in a fall. They both needed a replacement string nut and a good fret dressing. And again, the retailer actually had to GIVE them away near the end! Crazy.

Those earlier days of the satin finish budget line Gibsons that were actually as well built as their flagship guitars have "Faded" out. Now it seems they are using a slightly different approach to producing their lower end instruments. Considering inflation, these Zero models are even cheaper in the retail market than my LPMM was...while labor costs and materials costs have increased, and the company has a worse reputation and likely a worse financial situation than it had back then. There is, quite literally, *no way* to make these guitars "good" unless they decide to lose money on them. And they very well might have decided to do that, or just break even, with this line, figuring that the payoff will come down the line, when these entry-level people buying these decide to upgrade to a better Gibson in the future.
 
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I tried one of those and also that Les Paul thing they do in that price bracket.

Hilariously bad in every way. A Squier Standard has way more attention to details than those.
 
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GC had one (just one) on sale for the fourth-it didn't feel like a 'cheap' guitar, it felt like a caricature of a guitar. Seriously, the third guitar I made was better than that, and I'm sure as heck no PRS....it was sad, seeing what America could turn out for $400. :(


Larry
 
Firebird Zero- OMG

I first played one when I started playing guitar. Which isn’t to long ago. I picked it up and thought, why don’t they just buy a standard squire for that price and save 100 and get 3x the guitar. It also was my very first impression of a Gibson, so I though that Gibson were terrible and were similar to toy guitars. I obviously know that isn’t true after owning some but I didn’t then.

I think for $400 an American company can make a better guitar than that. I don’t know the margins on the guitar but I’d suspect if you already had the equipment to do that stuff it shouldn’t cost more than $100 and if it did you have some major efficiency problems and need to check that out.

I have made smoother finishes on rusty vehicles with touch up auto paint than what was on the one I tried. The neck had a similar feel to one of those starcasters fender used to pump out.

One final complaint is the parts didn’t seem to fit the guitar.
 
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